The "first-years" were unmistakable yesterday as classes started at The DickinsonSchoolofLaw. Clustered outside classrooms well before bells rang, the nervous scholars shared scuttlebutt they had picked up on courses and professors since arriving in Carlisle last week.

However, the freshmen turned confident in discussing a controversial -- and ultimately failed -- plan to move Dickinson to PennState's main campus in University Park.

Adam Solander spent six years at sprawling West Virginia University earning bachelor's and master's degrees. He wanted to study law in a small-town setting.

"That was mainly what drew me to this school," he said.

News that PennState had offered to build Dickinson a $60 million campus in State College also reached Aaron Kahn, of Washington, D.C., when he applied last spring.

He weighed the pros and cons of a stand-alone school and decided that studying will be easier in Carlisle, without the distractions he'd find in State College. But Kahn said he also knows that, in Carlisle, he won't get to rub elbows with University Park's science and engineering professors.

"The truth is, our reputation would be helped by going on main campus," said upperclassman Raymond Shank.

But Shank, a 1995 Cumberland Valley High School graduate, said he wouldn't have applied to Dickinson at State College because of his ties to the area and because Carlisle and Harrisburg offer internships that could lead to a good job.

Opponents of a move said internships in midstate courts and law offices couldn't be replicated in State College.

PennState officials, when they proposed a move last fall, said State College could deliver equally valuable apprentice experiences.

They said moving Dickinson to the main campus would allow students to develop marketable law specialties by interacting with teachers in other fields. And a move could draw more top-notch students and boost Dickinson's rankings.

Then, in June, PennState offered a compromise: Leave the school in Carlisle and build a second law campus at State College by 2008.

Dickinson's board of governors, which has say only over where Dickinson's primary campus is located, rejected the two-campus plan. The board voted instead to urge PennState to back a $50 million renovation of the Carlisle campus.

PennState trustees next month will vote on spending $10 million on that plan. The rest of the money would come from $15 million in alumni and local donations and a $25 million state grant.

Solander and others said a move to State College or a second campus there wouldn't have occurred until after they graduate.

But they admitted they are concerned over job prospects because of Dickinson's third-tier spot in U.S. News & World Report rankings.

?If the marketability of my degree goes up, by all means move it,?? said Luke Young, in his second year at Dickinson.

?But I'm conflicted from the moral standpoint,?? he said.

Young noted that local residents who rely on the school's free legal clinics would be abandoned in a move.

"They're indigent people. That whole resource would just be gone," Young said.

INFOBOX: LAW SCHOOL STATISTICS

* The 170-year-old school merged with PennState University in 2000.

* Graduates include Tom Ridge, U.S. homeland security secretary; U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum; and Sylvia H. Rambo, the first woman to serve as chief judge of U.S. Middle District Court.

A report on where things stand with PennState'sDickinsonSchoolofLaw will be given to the university's board of trustees at its Sept. 9 meeting, according to university administration. The law school board of governors voted 22-12 on Aug. 13 to table a proposal to open a second campus at University Park and instead focus on renovating the Carlisle location at an estimated cost of $50 million.

PennState President Graham Spanier said in a news release that the decision to not move forward with two campuses was "disappointing" but that the university will "do our best to move ahead constructively from here."

Any renovation project at the Carlisle campus would have to be approved by the PennState trustees.

Rodney Erickson, PennState's executive vice president and provost, said in an e-mail that the $10 million the university has pledged for the Carlisle campus is included in the five-year capital budget. That budget will be reviewed during the September meeting, but any project would need approval from the trustees.

"The trustees will thoroughly review and evaluate proposed law school renovation plans in the same manner they handle the authorization for all other capital projects," Erickson said.

Along with that $10 million, the law school board of governors is hoping $15 million can be raised and $25 million the state has committed in matching money will come through.

The resolution approved by the board of governors called for working with PennState and the board of trustees on Carlisle campus upgrades with a targeted completion date of August 2008. LeRoy Zimmerman, chairman of the board of governors, said the board is waiting to see what the trustees' plans are.

"We're letting the dust settle so that we can see a clear horizon for the future of the Dickinson law school, PennState," Zimmerman said.

Under the two-campus proposal that was tabled, PennState would have built a $60 million facility at University Park and spent $10 million on the Carlisle campus, along with other efforts to recruit faculty and improve the school.

The proposal included language that would have allowed the university board of trustees to close either campus after 10 years if it did not seem viable. Or, if the university wanted to close the Carlisle campus and agreement could not be reached with the board of governors, the proposal would have allowed the university to hand that campus back to the law school and end its affiliation with PennState.

That proposal followed an earlier one to make University Park the law school's primary location.

University officials have said a University Park campus would help the school attract faculty, boost the school's stature and deal with a lack of building space in Carlisle.

The Carlisle community, however, fiercely opposed the idea of losing the law school that was established there 170 years ago.

Tuesday, August 17, 2004

NEW CHALLENGE ; Governors vote to join university in quest to rejuvenate law school

Of the Patriot-News

Last week's shelving of PennState's plan to split its DickinsonSchoolofLaw into two campuses was likely based less on its merits than on its stipulations. Members of the law school's Board of Governors knew that if they approved the two-campus plan, PennState could close Trickett Hall in Carlisle after 10 years without their approval and move the school fully to State College.

In return for a short-term commitment in Carlisle, where the law school was founded in 1834, they were being asked to cede the control they retained when PennState and Dickinson merged in 2000.

Surely the board's 22-12 vote Friday to put the plan on ice did not reflect members' concerns for the school's future. It was clear from the statements of several to staff writer Elizabeth Gibson that they understood the magnitude of raising $15 million in private contributions that will assure a $50 million renovation of the school's existing campus in Carlisle.

However, when Dean Philip McConnaughay sent the board a confidential memo last fall proposing to move the school entirely to State College, at least some members, like nearly everyone else in the region, saw it as a solution in search of a problem. Few realized that the always highly regarded school had slipped to the third tier in national reputation and that its graduates no longer were getting offers from the nation's biggest and best firms.

It was the failure to educate the board and the community about the need for significant change before proposing the move to State College that cost PennState early support. And it was the university's insistence on an Aug. 15 deadline for a decision on the two-campus plan, with its stipulation for unilateral action if the Carlisle campus failed financially, that further stoked suspicions and community opposition to the move.

With its reputation for innovation, especially in so-called distance learning, the university surely has resources to bridge some of the gaps it sees between the law school and its other academic disciplines. The desire of many firms to hire young lawyers with a secondary specialty or even a graduate degree is the key reason PennState wanted to bring the law school to its main campus. The university now must address this issue in some other way.

But in voting to keep the school in Carlisle and not open a second campus, the Board of Governors has assumed a responsibility of its own in this area. The governors need to determine why Dickinson Law graduates are not getting the best job offers, even from fellow Dickinsonians, at the best firms. The school needs not just dollars from these highly successful alumni, but help in rebuilding credibility and standing, as well.

In January 1997, when the merger was announced, university President Graham Spanier wrote in a commentary for this newspaper about the value to the commonwealth of DickinsonSchoolofLaw, which, he said, "has a tradition of outreach and service that fits perfectly with the land grant service mission of PennState."

He added: "The law school joins an institution that is not geographically bound, but rather provides many of its important services in diverse communities throughout the state. ... I am particularly pleased that this merger provides PennState yet another opportunity to serve state government and the people of the greater Harrisburg area."

There is no reason Dickinson Law cannot fulfill these expectations and, at the same time, open doors for its graduates wherever they desire to practice law. Seeing that it happens remains the greatest challenge for both the law school and its parent university, regardless of Friday's vote.

HARRISBURG The governing board of Pennsylvania State University's law school has limited power, but it has flexed that minuscule muscle to the fullest to try to keep the DickinsonSchoolofLaw in Carlisle.

In an effort to end months of debate over how to improve the law school, the board voted by roughly a two-thirds majority Friday to recommend that PennState concentrate on renovating and expanding the Carlisle campus. PennState's board of trustees could consider the recommendation as early as next month.

The vote effectively scuttled a proposal from university president Graham Spanier to divide Dickinson's campus between Carlisle and the main campus in State College.

Established in 1834, Dickinson has been largely under PennState's control since a merger between the two schools in 2000. At the time, PennState was one of only two Big Ten universities without a law school, and Dickinson - the state's oldest law school - was seeking a way to survive in an increasingly competitive higher education market.

PennState and its board of trustees oversee Dickinson's day-to-day operations, from hiring faculty to approving new courses. Dickinson's board of governors was given an advisory role but it retained authority over the law school's name and location, which was to be in Carlisle "in perpetuity."

LeRoy S. Zimmerman, chairman of Dickinson's board, said that even though PennState never suggested at the time of the merger that it would contemplate moving the campus, Dickinson still wanted to retain a measure of veto power over the possibility.

When the idea of moving the campus to State College surfaced, sweetened by the prospect of PennState's footing the estimated $60 million cost of a new campus, "that immediately created a suspicion and a skepticism that it's a good thing that we put this language in, because otherwise, we'd be up in Happy Valley," Zimmerman said. Though the dual-campus agreement was touted as a potential compromise, it became apparent in July during negotiations between Dickinson and PennState that the university wasn't giving up on its efforts to acquire more leverage over the law school.

As a condition of that proposal, PennState insisted upon having the power to transfer control of the Carlisle campus back to Dickinson's board or close it if it couldn't be sustained after at least 10 years.

Although both sides characterized the talks as collegial and without rancor, Rodney Erickson, a PennState executive vice president and provost acknowledged that a power struggle was simmering.
"A fundamental issue... is that we were asking them to relinquish that power," Erickson said. "Higher education is changing so rapidly, including legal education, that we need to be able to respond in ways that make 'in perpetuity' difficult. Change is the order of the day."

But now, assuming PennState's trustees concur, change will be focused on what promises to be a massive face-lift and expansion of the Carlisle campus, an estimated $50 million project to be completed by August 2008.

Sunday, August 15, 2004

Carlisle upbeat about future of law school PSU denies ?back-door? plan on law school

ELIZABETH GIBSON

Of The Patriot-News

Carlisle is celebrating the outcome of its nine-month battle with PennState University over the future of The DickinsonSchoolofLaw. On Friday, Dickinson's board of governors voted 22-12 to defer PennState's proposal to build a second law campus in State College. Instead, the 170-year-old school will embark on a $50 million campus upgrade centered around Trickett Hall.

"It's a new dawn. We have an apparent commitment to make improvements to the law school to bring it to the level of one of the top law schools in the country," said Carlisle Council President Frank Rankin.

"I'm thrilled. They're a good part of the community. They add a lot, not only economically but with wonderful people. The community should not have to lose that caliber of people," Carlisle dentist Tom Filip said during early morning errands yesterday at the Old Pomfret Street Farmers Market.

His joy was mixed with criticism for PennState.

"PennState has been fairly underhanded in trying to steal the law school. It's an integral part of this community. I really feel that PennState was not up-front in their dealings," Filip said.

Ray Snyder, farmers market manager, said he was baffled by PennState's stance that the law school would be better off in State College. He said the university is known for its satellite campuses, and that people associate the university medical center with Hershey and the law school with Carlisle. "If you said, 'Dickinson Law in PennState,' people might say "Where's that?'"

PennState officials since November have pushed variations of a plan to give Dickinson a stronger State College presence. They said moving the school, or a portion of it, closer to the main campus would give students more curriculum opportunities and could boost admissions and Dickinson's national ranking.

But the university needed approval from the law school's board of governors.

The governors don't run the law school. Their board, created in 2000 when Dickinson and PennState merged, has few duties. But it can veto any plan to move the school and any change to Dickinson's name.

PennState had offered to build a $60 million law campus in State College and contribute $10 million toward a $25 million upgrade of the Carlisle campus. But Rodney Erickson, university vice president and provost, stipulated that PennState trustees be given the power to close the Carlisle campus if it can't survive financially.

Many law school board members balked at that potential loss of power. On Friday, they decided to defer the dual-campus option in favor of strengthen the existing campus.

But some members said a declaration of victory is premature.

Leslie Anne Miller said there's no proof that PennState won't resurrect plans to move the school.

"One of the problems in this whole situation is lack of trust," member Sandor Yelen said. "One of the concerns is that PennState wants to get its foot in the door ... and ease [the board] out and ... have the only law school at PennState and [Carlisle] will be closed."

PennState President Graham Spanier and law Dean Philip McConnaughay did not return yesterday's requests for comment. But Erickson denied any such plan.

"We would have done everything within our power to make the two- campus proposal work. It was never a back-door kind of approach," he said.

And board member Jan Jurden, a Delaware superior court judge, chastised fellow members for spurning PennState's multimillion- dollar offer. The governors risk such damage to Dickinson that "I can't imagine continuing to serve on this board," she said.

Carlisle community members are upbeat about the law school's future.

PennState officials have indicated university trustees are likely to approve a $10 million contribution to the $50 million improvement project for Carlisle. Plans include technological upgrades, expansion of the law library and more offices and classrooms. The trustees will discuss the project next month during a meeting on the university's five-year capital plan.

Alumni said they are optimistic $15 million can be raised from donations and charitable contributions and Gov. Ed Rendell has already promised $25 million in matching funds.

Chris Gulotta of the Cumberland County Redevelopment Authority said PennState's commitment to Carlisle will be demonstrated by a campus renovation.

Rankin said the council has begun talks on new partnerships with PennState and the law school. He said the relationship could be modeled on interaction the town has with Dickinson College, which is not affiliated with the law school, and which has, in recent years, enhanced its community ties.

Governors board member Lewis Katz, owner of the New Jersey Nets, said it's also time for the board to strengthen its alliance with PennState.

"Let's not lose the opportunity that [Rendell] has provided us, that Senator [Hal] Mowery and the Legislature has provided us, that PennState has provided us," he said. "If we could all put aside our distrust ... miscommunication and the way the situation was handled so poorly will in time go away."

CARLISLE The PennStateDickinsonSchoolofLaw will continue to have just one campus -- in Carlisle.

The law school's board of governors voted 22-12 Friday to shelve a proposal for two campuses -- one in Carlisle and one in State College -- and work with PennState to revamp the current campus at an estimated cost of $50 million.

"I think the board of governors' decision was a good one. I think we trust (PennState) President (Graham) Spanier to work with the board of governors, with the university, to develop and build and plan and finance a new law school in Carlisle," LeRoy Zimmerman, president of the board of governors, said after the meeting. "We must have a new facility here to remain competitive in the law market for education."

"The decision not to accept the two-campus proposal for the law school is disappointing, but we will do our best to move ahead constructively from here," Spanier said in a news release.

Rodney Erickson, executive vice president and provost of PennState, said after the vote that while Spanier and other university administrators have made it clear they're supportive of the law school, any financial decisions -- including whether the university's offer of $10 million to support renovations on the Carlisle campus still stands -- are up to the board of trustees.

"Ultimately, the board of trustees of PennState will have to take under consideration all of the plans that would involve a building of any kind at The DickinsonSchoolofLaw, including the $10 million," Erickson said.

PennState and Dickinson, which was founded in 1834, became affiliated in 1997. Last year, the board of governors began considering a proposal to move the law school to University Park and keep a satellite campus in Carlisle, which university officials said would improve the law school's rankings, help it attract top faculty and students, and address a lack of space in Carlisle.

The idea met strong opposition from the Carlisle community and some faculty, and it was replaced with a two-campus plan. PennState officials had asked for a decision on the two-campus proposal -- which included an offer by the university to build a $60 million facility at University Park and spend $10 million on the Carlisle campus -- by Sunday.

The proposal also would have given ultimate authority on keeping either the University Park site or the Carlisle campus operational to the PennState board of trustees -- an idea that didn't seem to appeal to many on the board of governors.

On Monday, the law school committee that looked into that proposal recommended further study of the two-campus approach, but only if the school would stay in Carlisle "in perpetuity." The university wanted to reserve the right, after 10 years of a dual-campus operation, to close either campus or to hand the Carlisle campus back to the law school and end its affiliation with PennState, if the law school opposed the closure.

But Friday the board of governors ended up voting on a proposal, offered by board member Lewis Katz via speakerphone from the Olympics in Athens, to focus on the Carlisle campus.

"I think this is an outstanding day for The DickinsonSchoolofLaw," said board member Jason Kutulakis, who amended the motion to include the timetable and estimated price tag of renovations at the campus. "This is a no-lose situation. This is a win-win. The DickinsonSchoolofLaw will have a new facility in Carlisle. And if the opportunity arises or if the need arises in the future to discuss some future relationship, being located at University Park, that door is completely open."

But Leslie Anne Miller, who voted no, said she was concerned that the board ended up considering a different motion than it had planned. She said the one approved by the board did not guarantee that the law school will stay in Carlisle.

"This battle is far from over, despite the glee that seems to pervade this room," Miller said.

One board member expressed concern about the law school's ability to raise the money, and another worried about the loss in guaranteed funding from PennState.

Friday's meeting was the first to take place since Gov. Ed Rendell signed a bill requiring the board of governors to make its meetings public, Zimmerman noted.

Instead of opening a second campus at PennState University, The DickinsonSchoolofLaw governors want to launch a $50 million renovation of the Carlisle site. The governors, in a 22-12 vote yesterday, shelved a proposal from PennState administrators to build a second law campus at State College.

"This is an outstanding day for our school. I'm ecstatic," Dickinson board member Jason Kutulakis said.

"I think it's very good news for the community and very good news for the law school as well," Carlisle Mayor Kirk Wilson said.

"The governor thinks the Carlisle campus is the best option for the law school, for Carlisle and for the future of the institution and for PennState, as well," said Ed Rendell's spokeswoman, Kate Philips.

After the vote, however, some board members warned casting aside PennState's offer could hurt Dickinson's efforts to draw more top- notch applicants and boost the school's national rankings. Those had been PennState's reasons for suggesting the dual campuses and an expanded curriculum this summer.

?The dual-campus idea is a 21st-century idea, and I think we've got to look past the horizon,?? said board member William Caroselli, who voted against deferring PennState's proposal.

Board member Lewis Katz, phoning in his vote from Athens, Greece, where he is accompanying the U.S. basketball team to the Olympics, said he spent Wednesday and Thursday evening on the phone with PennState President Graham Spanier and governors board Chairman LeRoy Zimmerman hashing out a new plan.

"Instead of an outright rejection [of the two-campus plan], we're not at this time prepared to do a second campus [or] consider anything other than a new law school in Carlisle. Let's build our one law school now in Carlisle," said Katz, who is the principal owner of the New Jersey Nets. "Give Carlisle what Carlisle deserves, the continued presence of a world-class law school."

Katz said Spanier "couldn't be more supportive about a new law school in Carlisle ... [and] helping to fund raise in any way we ask him."

After the meeting, PennState released a statement from Spanier: "The decision not to accept the two-campus proposal is disappointing, but we will do our best to move ahead constructively from here. PennState now needs to move forward and develop a new vision and strategic plan for our law school."

And PennState left the door open on the possibility for a second law campus in State College someday.

"Can it be revisited in the future? Yeah," said Wendell Courtney, PennState's lawyer.

Rodney Erickson, PennState vice president and provost, said the university trustees will discuss spending $10 million on Carlisle renovations during next month's talk on the university's five-year capital plan.

Rendell has pledged a $25 million matching grant from the state capital budget fund.

"As soon as the $25 million in matching funds is raised, the governor will be delighted to release the state funds," Philips said.

In addition to PennState's contribution, charitable grants and alumni donations are expected to provide $15 million.

Some Dickinson board members said they want more money from PennState for the renovation project.

"I have a great concern that we're not getting more earnest money from PennState," Joan Mahrer said.

Don Taylor said he thought alumni giving would fall short.

But Katz was optimistic. "I promise you I will lead the charge if I'm asked," he said.

Member Hubert X. Gilroy said that when the board last summer launched talks about a renovation of Trickett Hall, funding was a great concern.

Now, "we are $25 million to the better," he said. "I think this is a fabulous proposal."

Board member Jan Jurden, a Delaware Superior Court judge, said the board was failing in its duty to Dickinson by snubbing PennState's original proposal to build a $60 million law campus in State College and help pay for $25 million in renovations at Carlisle.

Board member Leslie Anne Miller also voted "no," saying she was troubled by inadequate planning for Dickinson's future. "We do not have the necessary strategic plan to guide this decision," she said.

The board, meeting yesterday in Dickinson's Trickett Hall, was originally expected to take up a recommendation to study the two- campus plan. PennState warned the board that if the dual campuses failed to work, the university could close the Carlisle campus. Most board members said they would never agree to that condition.

"It's very satisfying to see it end up the way it has," said state Sen. Hal Mowery, R-Cumberland.

Mowery fought for state money to renovate the Carlisle campus and sponsored an amendment to the state Sunshine Act that opened the law school's board meetings to the public.

The DickinsonSchoolofLaw's board of governors hopes to launch a $50 million renovation project with funding from: *A $25 million matching grant from the state capital budget fund. *$15 million in funds from Dickinson alumni and charitable grants. *A $10 million contribution from PennState University.

PHOTO; DAN GLEITER; Caption: This is an artist's rendition of a renovated and expanded DickinsonSchoolofLaw in Carlisle.; Rodney Erickson, PennState vice president and provost, said university trustees next month will discuss spending $10 million to renovate The DickinsonSchoolofLaw.